Frigates ‘can’t go to war’ despite $1.4bn upgrade
By Ian McPhedran
January 01, 2008 11:00pmElectronics not working properly
Senior officials admit to bungle
Whistleblower refuses to be namedTHE navy’s front-line fighting ships cannot defend themselves and are unable to be sent into battle, despite a $1.4 billion upgrade.
A navy insider close to the 4000-tonne Adelaide Class Guided Missile Frigates has revealed the ships’ complex electronic systems are not working properly.
He told The Advertiser that sending the 1970s ships to war would be like sending a VK Commodore to race at Bathurst.
Senior officials now admit that the 1997 frigate upgrade project was a “debacle” created by the Howard Government’s decision to maximise the sale price of the Sydney-based contractor, Australian Defence Industries, when it was sold to the French firm, Thales.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon described the upgrade as “another nightmare” Labor has inherited from the previous Coalition government.
The project is four years late and includes four ships - not the original six.
The navy insider, who asked not to be named, said sailors were quitting because their ships could not be deployed to the Middle East or any conflict zone.
Navy chief Vice-Admiral Russ Shalders last year refused to accept the first ship in the program, HMAS Sydney, for “operational release” as its fighting systems did not function properly.
The whistleblower said the ships’ anti-missile and anti-torpedo systems could not be integrated. Their electronic support measures (eyes and ears for detecting incoming airborne threats) were “a joke”.
“That means they would be going into a war zone virtually blind,” the sailor said. “The torpedo detection system cannot be integrated.”
The ships also are unable to us long-range chaff, which confuses enemy missiles and takes them from ships, link their helicopters to war-fighting data and integrate towed and on-board sonars to detect enemy torpedoes.
The sailor said what angered him and comrades was the gross waste of taxpayer funds when the navy could have bought virtually new and more capable U.S. Navy Kidd Class Destroyers in the late-1990s for a bargain price.
Mr Fitzgibbon said the upgrade was “another nightmare” Labor would have to manage.
“We are, however, determined to deliver the level of capability required for our navy to operate safely in various areas around the world,” he said.
The best news from the project has been the integration of the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile for self-defence. That is not enough to send them to war.
The total cost of the upgrade is $1.46 billion, or $360 million per ship.
Government auditors say up to 98 per cent of the money has been paid to Thales despite the project being four years late and not one ship being operational.
The officer who inherited what is widely regarded as the worst contract signed by the Commonwealth since the Collins “dud subs” submarines, Commodore Drew McKinnie, said that, despite all the problems, he was confident the project would deliver “significant improvements” to the ships.
The head of Major Surface Ship Projects with the Defence Material Organisation said he was seeing “much improved performance” from radar sensors.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22996234-911,00.html
Shades of HMS Hood – it would appear that nothing changes in defence procurement?.
It could have been worse, they might have had a ‘cover up’ instead of a ‘stuff up’.